1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an intestinal activation food product using natto powder, and more specifically, to an intestinal activation food product containing in a readily digestible form natto bacteria which are contained in natto, a food well known for its health values to the human body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some 100 species of intestinal bacteria are said to be present in the intestinal tract at a level of around a hundred trillion organisms and their different functions include the synthesis of hormones and vitamins and the formation of vitamins and enzymes, minerals and proteins as well as the regulation of intestinal activity and the maintenance of human life. Among these intestinal bacteria there are some that are beneficial to human health and some that are injurious, the former being known as Good Bacteria (effective or beneficial bacteria) and the latter as Bad Bacteria, with the natto bacteria being representative of the Good Bacteria.
Natto bacteria, a variety of the hay bacteria, are used in the making of natto by fermenting soybeans and breaking them down. They have a variety of effects, including a powerful antibacterial action that controls the growth of Bad Bacteria entering the body and killing them, an enhancement in digestive food absorption by controlling the action of the intestinal decomposing bacteria that are the cause of constipation and diarrhea, an enhancement of physical stamina, a carcinostatic effect, the prevention of blood pressure rises, the prevention of thrombus formation, the prevention of osteoporosis, and improvement of pancreatitis.
A variety of foods using the beneficial natto bacteria directly or as a raw material have already been proposed until the present.
Many of the natto bacteria using foods proposed as of the present, however, are produced using natto kinase prepared from natto as the raw material and/or the products formed by natto bacteria. Yet, these foods do not achieve the full effect or effects inherent in natto bacteria.
Thus, a large number of natto bacteria are already living bacteria when eating natto in the normal manner. In an acidic environment below pH 5, however, natto bacteria have the characteristic property that they will cease to be active and enter a dormant phase. They will thus cease to be active under the influence of the stomach acids and will be eliminated by excretion as it takes some time for germination to occur.
Even when the natto bacterium has reached the intestines it will thus not be retained in the intestinal tract and be eliminated from the body without adequately exerting its beneficial action which may be to enhance the activity of the Good intestinal bacteria or to produce new nutrients unless it can immediately begin to sprout from the sporangial state and grow by mitosis.
However, the consumption of foods made from natto is somewhat shunned because of the potent smell that is peculiar to natto. Further, the sprouting of natto bacteria in the sporangial state causes the smell that is peculiar to natto. As a result, natto has to be stored at low temperature at which sprouting cannot take place and it is normally difficult to store natto for a long time.
This invention purports to resolve or overcome these drawbacks and its aim is to deliver the natto bacteria to the intestines in the live form and to have the natto bacteria delivered to the intestines produce their intestinal regulating effect to the full by increasing their mitotic growth, while, at the same time, offering an intestinal activation food with natto bacteria in an easy-to-eat form without the offensive smell peculiar to natto during storage.
The present invention brings about an adequate intestinal regulating effect by imparting to the natto bacteria capable of producing an intestinal activation effect their own food and habitat and causing the natto bacteria in the intestines to proliferate by mitotic growth more effectively by simultaneously delivering their food and living environment to the intestine in which they are active, as compared with the effect of natto bacteria obtaining their nutrients directly in the intestines and from the food in the body.